The Ben-Eliezer Plan

(July 2002)

In July 2002, Israeli Defense Minister and
Labor Party leader
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer
set forth a plan for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, a "vision of two states for two peoples, living
side by side in peaceful coexistence." He explained
the relevant parameters for implementing a final settlement,
and stressed the need for negotiations and territorial compromise.

Ben-Eliezer specified three mutually complementary elements integral
to Israeli policy: the fight against terrorism,
a security separation, and the opening of negotiations to address the
conflict. He particularly emphasized the need for an "unrelenting
war on terror," and cited "our right of self-defense."

The security separation, a continuous fence complete with full technological
capacity, armed personnel, and effective monitoring systems, would be
erected to stop the infiltration of terrorists and their destructive
weapons into the State of Israel. He stressed that the current boundaries,
on which the fence would be built, mark armistice lines, not definitive
political borders.

The future Palestinian state would consist of most of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip.
It would include territorial continuity in the West Bank, and special
arrangements for travel between the two territories.

In the context of the agreement, arrived at through negotiations, Israel
would withdraw from all settlements
in the Gaza Strip, and from the "isolated settlements" in
the West Bank. Once the negotiation process begins, Israel would stop
the construction of new settlements and would limit existing settlements
to their natural growth.

As part of the agreement, the land in the West Bank immediately adjacent
to Israel proper, housing most of the settlers, would become fully integrated
into the State of the Israel. The agreement would thus arrange a territorial
swap with the future Palestinian state. The exact size and location
of the swapped land would be decided through negotiations.

An expanded western Jerusalem,
including Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, would finally be
recognized as the capital of Israel. This area, according to the "territorial-demographic
point of view," would be separated from the Arab neighborhoods
in the eastern part of the city.

Regarding the Old City and the holy sites therein, Ben-Eliezer maintained
that "a 'special regime' should be applied," so that no one
power would obtain sovereignty over the Temple
Mount. He called for "an agreed solution" between Islamic
states and Security Council members
to accent the legitimacy of this policy. He added that the Palestinians
would have to recognize the original Jewish ties to the area, which,
he said, they have
not done.

Ben-Eliezer called for the final settlement of the Palestinian
refugees of the 1948 war,
but noted that "whatever the solution, it must not be based on
what is called the 'right of return' to Israel." A return of the
Palestinian refugees to Israel would undermine the "fundamental
national ideological and demographic roots" of the Jewish state.
Rather, due to demographic and security concerns, these Palestinians
must either be resettled in the future state of Palestine or be granted
citizenship where they currently live. Israel would participate in an
international fund to aid any adjustments.

He emphasized that the hundreds of thousands of Jewish
refugees fleeing Arab countries following the creation of the State
of Israel must be considered in drafting the final settlement to the
Palestinian refugee problem.

Security, he stated, is the fundamental foundation of any agreement.
Therefore, he advocated the complete supervised demilitarization of
the Palestinian state. Israel must have the "indivisible"
control of airspace, as well as the capacity to respond to any emergency
situation.

Finally, Ben-Eliezer stressed the need for international support, in
the form of significant economic aid, supervision of security operations,
observer forces, and a new UN Security Council resolution encompassing
all former relevant resolutions.

While acknowledging that significant progress would not arrive immediately,
he repeated that need for negotiations: "We will keep the door
of negotiations open until there is somebody who will walk through it
with us."